Just got into Vegas and met everyone at the house. Everyone here seems very cool and laid back should be a fun bunch.

I'm going to keep this short bc I need a nap before I hit the casinos for live play. I'll update with some June stuff next week when I get back. Right now I'm taking my 2nd shot at 200nl and things are going very well compared to the first shot.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Peace,
Nick

Fwd to 50 seconds

What's up guys? I went to The Killers concert last night with Alex (Zaitsev) here in Indianapolis and it was an amazing show. Definitely one of the better concerts that I've been to in some time.

Thanks for everyone who read and commented on my last blog about turning $200 into 6k. Hopefully I can add some more to that come this fall when I'm hopefully playing 2/4.

April was pretty meh. I didn't get in my normal 1k hands a day due to some travel for work in the later part of the month. Overall, April was a good month. I hit a pretty bad downswing towards the end but I think my game is coming along well. I hope to take a shot at 1/2 this month but definitely in June.

I've got a lot going on in May so I'm not sure how many hands I'm going to be getting in. It seems like I have a ton going on back home in Nashville just about every weekend.

Here is my graph for 100nl and stats for some 50nl hands and the 100nl hands.




Good luck May players.

It began in October of 2008. Frustrated and in my mind "done with poker" I withdrew my entire roll except for $200 on Full Tilt. I had just finished my September -$300 after playing nearly 60k hands at 50nl. At the time, I had consulted teaching from Alex Yen. Unfortunately, all of his teaching wasn't doing me a damn bit of good because I was a TAG FISH. I had beat 50nl and 25/50nl on UB for a while playing my 12/8 style and reaping the benefits of terrible players. Basically I was a nut peddler and if I was met with resistance, surely they have the nuts, I fold. To Alex's defense he broke the mold that I was used to, he opened my eyes to so much that I had never even considered, I mean why would I? I had my trusty hand chart, how could that lead me astray?

So I took a week off and thought about what was keeping me from beating this game (still didn't know that it was ME keeping ME from winning). So I start my challenge 50k hands, 10nl, and at least a 7ptbb win rate (See Blog Entry on Oct. 6, 2008). So it began... me playing 10nl. It was so easy these players were terrible and then there were suck outs and at times 10nl felt more like pouring salt into my eyes than it did a beatable level. Nevertheless, I continued to piss and moan and move on. On October 31st, I had played 25k hands and had beat 10nl for 3.4ptbb. NO WHERE CLOSE to my goal. I had $200+$175+160ish in rakeback which put my BR a little above $500 so onto 25nl. Alex said that I was lacking in discipline and that I should finish out the other 25k hands at 10nl and I told him that he was crazy and that I wasn't going to do that. (2nd best piece of advice given)

Nov. 2008 25nl is moving right along, so good in fact I spend the first 16k hands on a roller coaster. It was terrible 1 bad beat would set me off. I would play terrible and turn into a call monkey and start pushing hands when it was obvious I was WAY behind. after the first 16k hands at 25nl I was +33.60! It was awesome and I was sure that I ran worse than a 1 legged man.

November 14th, 2008 and this conversation happened. I'll condense it a little. Basically I would be winning for a session then lose then be pissed. I was bitching and moaning any my mindset blew.

[11/14/2008 7:44:26 PM] joseph speight says: i think the turning point to my poker career (and to a lager extent my life) was being able to let go of things i cant control. this is an incredibly difficult thing to do b/c naturally humans want to control everything around them. but some things are out of your power. this is an easy thing to say "yeah, i know that"...but to actually understand, believe, live that idea is very difficult.
[11/14/2008 7:44:28 PM] Nick West says: I don't even know where to rank my PSTF game bc i'm not sure what a 10 PSTF game looks like
[11/14/2008 7:44:46 PM] Nick West says: yeah that's hard for me
[11/14/2008 7:44:54 PM] Nick West says: bc i'm like super ultra mega insane competitive
[11/14/2008 7:45:19 PM] Nick West says: like gofl for example i'm in control but if i hit a couple of bad shots i'm on tilt
[11/14/2008 7:47:15 PM] joseph speight says: yeah, i am too. more so then anybody i know probably. but it's not about being competive, it's about doing to absolute best you can in every given situation. if your best comes up short...then dont bitch and complain about it, get better. sometimes your best just isnt good enough, but that's when hard work and your competetive drive will not let you stop improving.
[11/14/2008 7:48:29 PM] joseph speight says: life is full of decisions and situations that you have total control over, if you let yourself get bogged down in things that there is absolutely nothing you can do then life in general will be really crappy for you
[11/14/2008 7:49:05 PM] joseph speight says: you can make yourself crazy trying to control uncontrolable situations...dont do that to yourself, give yourself a break
[11/14/2008 7:49:14 PM] joseph speight says: let it go
[11/14/2008 7:49:18 PM] joseph speight says: let it go
[11/14/2008 7:49:23 PM] joseph speight says: let it go
[11/14/2008 7:50:05 PM] Nick West says: ok well i'm going to let you go so that I can go to Target but I will be back later if you're around. Do you plan on playing tonight at all?

I went to Target and had dinner and thought about what Joe said. I have to learn to let it go, just like anything in life. If you let it eat your lunch, ruin your day, get in your mind, effect your emotional well being, you're going to be a slave to whatever "it" is and "it" will be your demise.

Post mind set. I blew up 25nl after Nov. 14th (See blog Dec. 28, 2008 post change). and I never looked back. I took my first shot(5bi) at 50nl once my BR was at $1250 and had to move down once when my BR hit $1k. See last blog entry for graph of 50nl stats.

Feb 1st I took my first shot at $100nl (5bi shot) when my BR was at $3500 things started off well but after about 1600 hands all hell broke loose and I found myself back at 3k after 6100 hands and back at $50nl. I took another shot at 100nl at the end of Feb/early March and dropped 5bis again this time only lasting about 1800 hands. Frustration was definitely on my mind but I wasn't going to let it beat me and destroy me. My 3rd shot was taken mid March after I built my BR back up to $3500 and things have been going well since then.

Currently I'm sitting on $5994.35 and have ambitions on taking my first shot at $200nl come early June. I would like to thank Joe (GoHeels) for letting me be his student and for busting my ass when I get out of line. A big thanks to Alex Yen (Zietsev) for introducing me to Joe as well as his words of advise and for opening my eyes. Also, thanks Frank "monkey tilt" Catalani and Jes. jk about the monkey part Frank. lol

Thanks for reading. Let it go!

After much thought I decided that I want to start coaching. I'm not looking to take on a ton of students. Since I work 40 hours a week my "free time" is limited to evenings from 5pm-10pm eastern, that being said I will be limiting the amount of students I take on. I will be coaching 10nl-50nl. Below are my stats from 25nl and 50nl along with my rates, package rates, and lesson makeup. If you are serious about wanting to move up PM me or leave a comment. Thanks.

10nl $40 rate is a 4.5 hour package rather than an hourly rate.
30 minutes of Q&A, discussion of poker fundamentals, setting poker goals, strong points, approach to the game, etc.
1 hour video review.
2 hours of HEM review.
1 hour sweat session.

25nl $20 an hour or $80 for the 4.5 hour package described above.

50nl $45 an hour or $175 for the 4.5 hour package described above.

Long time no blog. In fact, I didn't blog once in March (such a slacker).

Below are my results for 50nl and 100nl. I finally turned things around in March at 100nl. I started off March playing 50nl, took a shot at 100nl late in the first week or so, played some had to drop down to 50nl and then went back to 100nl the last week or so of March.

One of the many keys to being successful at poker, especially at the micro stakes is having a short term memory AND long term thinking. By short term memory I mean you have to let all of the bad beats go, all of the 60/40 OESD +FD + Pair blah blah blah misses. You have to let this stuff go. You can't say I would've had a great month if..... insert whatever. Players who want to beat the game don't play 10-15k hands a month and go, I had a great or bad month. I work 40 hours a week at a "real job" and have a pretty extensive social life and still manage to get in 1k hands a day. Granted, I know if I had a wife and kids that would be different but the overall result should be the same. This kind of segways itself into long term thinking. You have to get your hands in, the more hands the better. I'm not implying that you should fire up 20+ tables and go crazy. I'm saying that find the max # of tables you are playing your A game at 2-3,3-4, 4-5 or whatever and play! Forget the beats and think of the end result. Ok I'm off my soap box.

I'm thinking of taking on a couple of students who are struggling with 25nl and 50nl. I'm not sure if there is actually any interest in me actually coaching. but I guess I'll find out. I will post my 10nl,25nl & 50nl stats in a couple days. Leave me a pm or comment if you're interested.

Hello! February was a great month poker wise. I took my first shot at 100nl and started off on fire unfortunately, that fire was quickly extinguised. I started off crushing 50nl for the first ~10k hands, then took my shot at 100nl, then dropped back down to 50nl and ran pretty meh for 10k hands then there was a fire lit under my ass and I finished the month strong. I also recorded a new best day ever in Feb at 50nl. On Feb. 6th I won $315.70 in 1704 hands. Overall I think Feb. is one of my best month's when it comes to an hourly rate. I played 63.40 hours which comes to $19.92 an hour. I'm now currently rolled for 100nl again and hope to stay there for good in March and hopefully onward from there. A big thanks to GoHeels for his coaching, time, patience, and words of advice!!!!!

Here is my graph for the 100nl shot.



My graph for 50nl

So February has been an interesting month for me poker wise. I will talk about my results in my next blog later this week.

So the title, The Killers. The band is amazing for those of you who don't know. Their Day & Age albumn is really deep when you read about the lyrics in the songs that were written by Brandon Flowers (lead singer). My point, I'm going to see them at the Murat in May here in Indianapolis and I can't wait. I have never seen them live which I can't believe considering how long they have been out. Nevertheless, I'm very very pumped about the show. Here are a couple songs from the Day & Age albumn. Spaceman is a catchy "pop" type song, Dustland Fairytale is about the meeting of his mother and father, his father's coming clean with his bout with alcohol, and the battle his mother is facing with cancer.

In other news.. I'm taking a golf trip in March to Alabama to play some courses on the Robert Trent Jones golf trail. I'm really looking forward to this considering that Indiana winters aren't really conducive to golf.

Finally, I went on a date earlier this month and it was definitely the most uncomfortable date that I had ever been on. Luckily it only lasted 45 minutes and the food was good. So, the date. Well it started off ok but after about 10 mins I knew it was going to go to the shitter. All she did was talk, talk talk talk talk and about herself. So after about the 3rd question that I asked I gave up on her actually returning the favor by asking me a question when she was done babbling. So I kept asking her questions trying to see how long I could make her talk before she would stop and think omg all I do is talk talk talk, all the while I'm eating my food fairly quckly hoping to end this thing as quick as possible. So after about 25 mins she finally asked me a question. So why was I trying to end this so quickly? During this barrage of babble she divulged that her divorce wasn't final, that she had 4 miscarriages, she had fibromyalgia, she was perfect and her husband was a joke, she couldn't maintain eye contact.. literally she would stare down any and everyone in the restaurant. She even hawked down an old neighbor from when she was married that she said "only knew one side of the story" and she hoped that he didn't see her. She then went on to stare this guy down as he went to the bathroom and returnd to the lobby to meet his wife and kids. She finally tilts her head to the side and waves and then whispers to me "that was awkward" wtf?1 you freakin were staring him down? I'm sure that guy was thinking the same thing I was... what a freakin' psycho. Yay for bad dates!

So this month was pretty good. I had my best day ever at the tables on 1/23. I made about 4.5 buy ins in 524 hands which was pretty amazing imo. Posted below is my graph for 50nl in Jan. I ended up making about 25 buy ins and another 450ish in rakeback. I'm hoping to take my first shot at 100nl sometime in Feb. depending upon the BR requirements that I have. I hope everyone's month turned around. There were a ton of "I run like ass" blogs this month, entirely too much negativity.